"I think [destroying Syria's chemical weapons] is a very complicated operation, technically. And it needs a lot of money, about a billion," he told Fox.

"So it depends, you have to ask the experts what they mean by quickly. It has a certain schedule. It needs a year, or maybe a little bit more."

Asked why he had used force to repress a popular uprising and triggered a two-and-a-half year war that has claimed 110,000 lives, Assad insisted Syria was a victim of terrorism.

"What we have is not civil war. What we have is war. It's a new kind of war," he said, alleging that Islamist guerrillas from more than 80 countries had joined the fight.

"We know that we have tens of thousands of jihadists... we are on the ground, we live in this country," he said, disputing an expert report that suggested 30,000 out of around 100,000 rebels were hardliners.

"What I can tell you is that ... 80 to 90 percent of the underground terrorists are Al-Qaeda and their offshoots."

Assad admitted that at the start of the uprising there were non-jihadist rebels, but alleged that since the end of 2012, Islamic extremists had become a majority.

He added that "tens of thousands of Syrians" and 15,000 government troops had been killed "mainly because of the terrorist attacks, assassinations and suicide bombers."

While Assad pursued his media counterattack, the five UN Security Council powers held new talks on a resolution backing the Russia-US plan to destroy the chemical weapons.

Western nations, who said they are not looking for an immediate threat of force against Assad, could seek a Security Council vote this weekend if Russia agrees.

UN envoys from the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China held two hours of talks at the US mission.

"There is no accord yet, there will be more negotiations," said one UN diplomat.

The disarmament plan will face its first big test on Saturday, the one-week deadline announced by Moscow and the United States for Assad to provide a list of his chemical facilities.

Assad said in his interview that he could provide a list "tomorrow," and Moscow said it had received assurances that he would cooperate.

Britain, France and the United States have prepared a draft resolution that would invoke Chapter VII of the UN Charter but would not explicitly threaten force or sanctions.

Without giving details of the draft, Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the Western powers want to use Chapter VII to make the Russia-US plan binding under international law.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said when he struck the deal with US Secretary of State John Kerry that it would be backed with a UN resolution under Chapter VII but has since questioned its use.